Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1887-06-22
MANAGER POTTER INTERVIEWED.

TT. Potter, First Vice-President and
General Manager of the Union Pacific; his
son, Private Secretary Phelps and V. C.
Bogue. chief engineer OF the Union Pacific
arrived in Bntte at 11:45 q. m. yesterday
They arrived in Anaconda at O'Clock
that morning paid visit to the smelter
and leaving there made the run to Butte
in forty minutes, the fastest time ever
made between the two points. They were
accompanied by President Dana and Super.
intendent Dawson of the Montana Union,
Traffic Manager Shelby OF Salt Lake,
Engineer Maxwell and General Agent
Baldwin, who had received the
distinguished guest at Garrison. Hon.
W. Clark met the party at the depot and
they were his guests at lunch at Fischer'e
restaurant. At 1:3O
CARRIAGES WE'RE TAKEN
and a visit paid to the Anaconda mine
which being Mr.. Potter's first visit to the
mines of Butte interested him exceedingly
and gave him some idea OF the magnitude
and import ance of the industry to which
DuCUc OWcS IU6 eAISucUCc. VII tuc
Mr.. Potter was driven direct to Clark e.
Larabie's bank where he met in conference
Messrs. A. J. Davis, representing his extern
sive mining interests: w. A. Hall, Superin-
tendent of the Alice;J. K. Clark, Superinten-
dent Of the Mouiton; and Mr.. Sickles book
keeper of the Lexington. Besides these there
were present Hon. w. A. Clark, Traffic
Manager Shelby, President Dana and Cen
eral Agent Baldwin. Mr.. Potter was the
center of the group and Mr.. w. A. Clark
the spokesman for the
SILVER MINING INTERESTS
OF Butte. Mr.. Clark said in introducing
the subject that the gentlemen present
representing silver mines had taken ad
vantage OF his presence here to lay before
him personally the state of facts in regard
to the almost prohibitory charges made by
his road on salt, an article OF prime ne
cessity in their business. He then read the
communica tion from the mine owners to
Mr.. kimball in the beginning of May anG
Mr.. kimb IFS reply to them fortnight
later in which he practically refused the re-
quest made for a reduction in the price OF
salt per ton laid down in Butte. namely
SIS. Mr.. Clark then proceeded to
DEMONSTRATE BY ARGUMENT
and figures that, with the cost of labor
and the articles OF prime necessity in the
silver milling business, it was only ques-
tion Of time how soon they should shut
down, unless the high tariff on salt were
He said that the mill men of
Butte could not be convinced that if coal
could be laid down here at Sc a ton it is
to ask SIS for salt. With the
price OF silver low down in the COS it was
impossible for silver mining to be continued
where no dividends could possibly be
declared to stockholders. lie and the
other Butte gentlemen stated that their
mines had paid no dividends to share.
holders in some instances for eighteen
and they would simply
HAVE TO SHUT DOWN
if some diminution of expense in running
did not come pretty soon. Mr.. Potter re-
piled that this was a subject to which he
was entirely new; that the gentlemen must
regard him as complete stranger to the
merits of the subject, and that it was
one which he was unable to
discuss. The gentlemen knew he
had only recently been appointed to the
position he held and the trip he was now
making was for the purpose of becoming
acquainted with the system and the re-
quirements OF the various points on their
lines In about a week he would see Mr..
Kimball in Omaha and would then have a
discussion of the subject with him
and let the Butte gentlemen know the
RESULT OF THEIR CONFERENCE.
The conversation became general in
which Mr.. Shelby took a hand and called
Mr.. Clark's attention to the fact that the
road had to pay So ton at Ogden for the
salt. Mr.. Clark replied that he could make
a contract for it at $2.75, and that it was
a bsurd to charge S12 for hauling salt from
Ogden when the coal the road laid down in
Butte at Sc came $50 miles further
Mr.. Potter said he was in favor of letting
the mill owners buy their salt where they
could and charging reasonable freight
rates. Mr.. Shelby reminded Mr.. Clark that
this used to be the practice before the com
pany commenced supplying the salt to the
and the result was that every
now and then somebody would
GET CORNER
on the article and run the price up. He
added that the price had been materially
reduced from what it used to be, and Mr..
Clark drily responded, $50 has silver"
Mr.. Clark said that the silver mill men of
Butte were not there to make any threa ts
at ALL He wanted Mr.. Potter to believe
they we're only making a plain statement
Of the facts in the case, and, if they could,
obtain reduction in rates from the Union
Pacific to the same basis as that at which
coal is brought here, and if not then they
would have to appeal to the Interstate
Commerce Commission and see what
REDRESS THEY COULD OBTAIN
there. Mr.. Potter said of course that
mode of redress was open to them, but
that he would make it his first duty to see
what improvement the Union Pacific could
make, if any, and communicate with the
gentlemen at once on the subject. He then
shook hands cordially with those present
and left the bank building for the depot,
where a special train pulled out at
o'clock for Ogden, with Mr.. Potter and his
party on board. The gentlemen remain
ing discussed their grievances short while
and summed up the situa ton Of the silver
mining industry at present as extremely
gloomy. If the silver mines shut down,
unable to stand the drain upon them with